1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present general inventive concept relate to a printing method, recordable medium and host apparatus, and more particularly, to a printing method to load a filter dynamically, a recordable medium with a program to execute the printing method and a host apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, Microsoft has unveiled concepts on a new XPS (XML Paper Specification) file format to replace existing EMF files, and an XPS-based print driver to print in the XPS file format.
FIG. 1 illustrates an XPS print path as a part of a newly-employed print architecture together with a GDI print path from Windows Vista OS excerpted from the MS press release.
From the GDI print path, if a print command is sent through a Win32 application 1 for original data, a spooler 2 spools the original data into an enhanced meta file (EMF). The EMF file is rendered into a GDI (Graphic Device Interface) function supplied by Windows OS by a GDI rendering engine 3a of a GDI-based printer driver 3. The rendered EMF file is rendered into a PDL (Page Description Language) by a PDL conversion transmitter 3b to be recognized by the printer 4 and then transmitted to the printer 4. Therefore, the printer 4 finally prints the file. Here, PDL includes PCL (Printer Command Language) developed by HP and PS (PostScript) developed by Adobe.
From the XPS print path, if a print command is sent through .Net Framework 3.0 based WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) application 5 for original data, a spooler 6 spools the original data into an XPS file format. A filter pipeline administrator 7 reads a filter setting file 8 and loads a first filter 7a, a second filter 7b and an nth filter 7c in sequence written in the filter setting file 8 to process the XPS spool file 6a. The XPS spool file 6a processed by the nth filter 7c is transmitted to the printer 4 to be printed.
Here, OS provides a GDI to XPS converter to convert the original data into the XPS spool file to thereby print the original data written from the Win32 application along the OXS print path. Conversely, an XPS to GDI converter is also provided to convert the original data into GDI to thereby print the original data written from the WPF application along the GDI print path.
To embody the foregoing XPS print path, an XPS printer driver 10 is required, and the detailed configuration thereof is as shown in FIG. 2.
The XPS printer driver 10 includes a Version 3 driver 11 and a filter pipeline administrator 7. The Version 3 driver 11 includes a conversion render module 13 to convert the original data written from the Win32 application 1 using a GDI print API (Application Programming Interface), into an XPS spool file; and a setting module 15 to receive printer setting information.
The filter pipeline administrator 7 reads a filter setting file 8 and loads the first filter 7a, and second filter 7b to nth filter 7c in sequence corresponding to a filter description written in the filter setting file 8. The respective filters 7a, 7b and 7c process the XPS spool file according to a principle set during programming. The processed XPS spool file is transmitted to the printer to be printed.
FIG. 3 illustrates operations of filters by the filter pipeline administrator 7.
As shown therein, four filter descriptions A of “watermark”, “overlay”, “N-up” and “render” are written in sequence in the filter setting file 8.
The filter pipeline administrator 7 reads the filter setting file 8, and loads “watermark,” “overlay,” “N-up” and “render” filters corresponding to the filter description A, in sequence, to process an XPS spool file 6a. More specifically, the filter pipeline administrator 7 loads the watermark filter 7d first. The watermark filter 7d outputs an XPS spool file watermarked from the XPS spool file 6a. The watermarked XPS spool file is inputted to the next overlay filter 7e. The XPS spool file inputted by the overlay filter 7e is used to output an overlaid XPS spool file. Likewise, as the XPS spool file 6a passes through the filter pipeline including a series of filters 7d, 7e, 7f and 7g, each of the filters 7d, 7e, 7f and 7g processes the XPS spool file 6a. Here, the render filter 7g converts the inputted XPS file into a PDL required by the printer 4. Then, the converted PDL data are transmitted to the printer 4 to be printed.
However, the conventional filter setting file has the fixed filter description A, and filters are loaded to process print options even though a user did not select the print option.
If the render filter is fixed in the filter setting file, the XPS spool file passes through the render filter to increase the printing job time even though the printer supports the XPS spool file format and the PDL conversion is not necessary.
If a printer does not support the XPS spool file format, the render filter should be present. However, if the filter setting file is fixed to have no render filter, the printer may not print the file. Particularly, considering office environment where a plurality of host apparatuses and printers are connected in a network, some printers may not be used as the filter description of the render filter is fixed in the filter setting file.